Monday, March 29, 2010

Catching up on recent news that I haven't had a chance to weigh in on:

Going into spring training, the outcome to root for was to see Craig Stammen and Garrett Mock seize spots in the rotation, because of their relative youth and upside. It's good to see that they both not only got those spots, but pitched well enough to really earn them.

Mike MacDougal lucked out last season, saving 20 games in 21 opportunities, despite walking 34 batters in 50 innings. This spring training, the Marlins let him go after he walked 7 in 4.1 innings. He's terrible, and if he's pitching high-leverage innings for the Nationals this year, it'll be a major knock on Rizzo's efforts to fix the bullpen.

With Justin Maxwell getting sent down, it's looking increasingly likely that we're going to see Willy Taveras in Washington at least as a back-up. This isn't good news.

In a flashback to 2008, the team looks like they will enter the season with no defensively adequate first-baseman, even as a late-inning replacement.

When the Yankees put Chad Gaudin on waivers, the Nationals could have gotten the second solid veteran starter they never signed this winter, and it would have cost just $2.95 million. Gaudin is certainly a better pitcher than Livan Hernandez, Miguel Batista or Scott Olsen, and if the Strasburg-Wang-Marquis-Lannan-Mock/Stammen/Detwiler rotation ever comes together, Gaudin could be effective as a reliever. But Mike Rizzo passed. Gaudin is now a pitching for Oakland, and the Nationals missed an easy chance to get better.

Alberto Gonzalez will never be a starter in the majors, but there's no reason not to choose him to be the team's utility infielder instead of the horrid Eric Bruntlett.

7 comments:

I am surprised you don't mention Boswell's column this morning. I figured it would have you sputtering, even though you agree with putting Desmond at shortstop. He does a little statistical comparison which might be different than your approach. At times I wonder if you have considered changing the name of the blog to FTB.

How does that work with Chad then? Are you saying the A's did not claim him off waivers but then turned right around signed him to a major league deal and put him on the 40 man roster anyway and paid him more than they needed to? Does not sound like money ball to me. What are we missing here?